This invention relates generally to improvements in particle separators and more specifically to means for providing an anti-icing capability thereto. Many sand and dust separators have been developed over the last fifteen years to protect internal combusion engines which operate in sand-laden environments. The U.S. Pat. No. (3,970,439) of Murphy assigned to Avco Corporation, assignee of the present invention, is an example of the current state of the art. Other examples of sand and dust separators are disclosed in United States Patents as follows: U.S. Pat. No. 1,693,479 of Edgar; U.S. Pat. No. 3,371,471 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,534,548 of Conners; U.S. Pat. No. 3,673,771 of Dickey; U.S. Pat. No. 3,720,045 of Murphy; and U.S. Pat. No. 3,778,983 of Rygg. Additional examples of separators are covered in British Pat. No. 446,268; French Pat. No. 769,259 and German Pat. No. 543,466.
All of the abovementioned air particle separators provide protection from the erosion damage caused when sand and dust get into the air intake of an engine. None, however, has the anti-icing capability provided by our invention. The particle separator herein described is both small and efficient in that it removes contaminants without a large pressure drop across the assembly. Further, when temperature and humidity conditions are such that frost and ice would begin to build up on the plurality of parts making up the separator assembly, heated air is fed through ducts to rid the surfaces of ice. With this invention residual ice can be melted and the resulting liquid withdrawn through the scavenge ducts. Initiation of the flow of heated air can wait until ice-up commences.